Next pope can do better

When theological hardliner Joseph Ratzinger was elevated to the Roman Catholic Church’s top post in 2005, writer Andrew Sullivan, a Catholic, tried to explain the ramifications to a non-Catholic.

“This is the religious equivalent of having had four terms of George W. Bush, only to find that his successor as president is Karl Rove. Get it now?”

Eight years later, the ever-decreasing number of Catholics get it now. A pope who plans to resign due to declining health has done little to cure the ills facing a church in decline.

Monday, Pope Benedict XVI made the stunning announcement that he would step down at the end of this month, becoming the first pope in 600 years to leave of his own will. It’s perhaps ironic that a scion so entrenched in the past would resign in rather groundbreaking fashion, as the 85-year-old leader was never known for roiling the status quo.

And despite the joke that at least he can’t feign a wish to spend more time with his family, he deserves credit for good timing and knowing when it’s time to go.

“In today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” he said.

The cleric dubbed “God’s Rotweiller” for his tough stance on theological issues did not disappoint his conservative fans, but others who had hoped for badly needed reform, accountability and humane policies on issues such as birth control, celibacy, gays and women in the priesthood were left with unanswered prayers.

In a small nod to modernity, he joined Twitter and cut an album, yet continued to sing the same old songs that have steadily driven Catholics from the church in droves. In Africa, home to 67 percent of the world’s population living with AIDS, he denounced the use of condoms as a way to prevent the disease. When the president introduced universal health care, his bishops were dispatched to obsess about birth control.

And in one of the finest examples ever of tone-deaf cluelessness, the Vatican had the audacity during his reign to issue a crackdown on American nuns for not speaking strongly enough against gay marriage, abortion and women’s ordination to the priesthood. The point man for the attack was none other than Cardinal Bernard F. Law, former and disgraced archbishop of Boston, who for years turned a blind eye to pedophile priests in his own diocese.

Pope Benedict was also complicit in the child abuse cover-up and repeatedly put the reputation of the church above the young victims, while the Vatican continued to cast about for a villain — gays, the devil, sexual mores. In 2008, I noted that the pope even blamed the crisis on a breakdown of American values. While acknowledging that bishops “sometimes very badly handled” the scandal, he failed to recognize in any real way that the abuse was a direct consequence of a dysfunctional church hierarchy that allowed it to fester.

“What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?” he said. So much for staying on point.

If the Church is to survive, it must move forward. Is the pope Catholic? Absolutely. But while the papacy has always operated under the claim that it answers to no earthly power, perhaps the next one will at least acknowledge that his subjects are complex, conflicted and Earth-bound human beings.